In this episode, Sara shares five spiritual principles that have transformed the way she approaches business. Drawing from her own experiences with burnout and rebuilding, she explores how presence, cyclical rhythms, intuition, boundaries, and intentional structure can create a more integrated and sustainable way of working. Rather than separating business from spirituality, she invites listeners to see their work as an extension of their spiritual path.
In this episode, we explore:
- Why spiritual practice and business do not need to exist in separate worlds.
- Five guiding principles for creating a more sustainable and aligned business.
- How presence, rest, and natural rhythms support both wellbeing and effective leadership.
- The importance of trusting inner wisdom while creating healthy boundaries.
- How thoughtful business structure can become an expression of devotional service.
Key takeaways
- Presence often leads to deeper work than constant productivity.
- Sustainable businesses honor natural cycles of action, rest, and renewal.
- Inner wisdom provides valuable guidance alongside external business advice.
- Clear boundaries support both business owners and the people they serve.
- Well-designed systems and structure can create more space for meaningful work.
Resources mentioned
- Join the free training for spiritually mature women in business here.
- Subscribe to elle-même, Sara’s Substack
Episode FAQs
What are the five spiritual principles Sara shares?
The episode explores five principles: choosing sacred presence over perpetual productivity, embracing cyclical rhythms instead of constant linear growth, prioritizing inner wisdom over external validation, treating boundaries as a spiritual practice, and approaching business structure as devotional service.
Why does Sara encourage working in cycles?
She explains that nature operates through rhythms rather than constant growth. Bringing this understanding into business allows for periods of creation, visibility, rest, and integration, making work more sustainable over time.
How does inner wisdom influence business decisions?
Sara encourages creating space for practices such as meditation, journaling, movement, or time in nature before making important decisions. She distinguishes inner wisdom from fear by describing wisdom as calm, spacious, and clear.
Why are boundaries considered a spiritual practice?
Sara describes boundaries as sacred containers that make deeper service possible. Rather than limiting generosity, clear boundaries help preserve energy, support presence, and create healthier relationships with clients and work.
What does Sara mean by devotional service through business structure?
She explains that systems, routines, and organizational practices can support spiritual values when they are created intentionally. Structure becomes a way of serving both the business and the people it exists to help.
Read the Full Transcript
How are you feeling about your business right now?
Are you experiencing a sense of alignment and flow? Is your work nourishing your spirit? Or does it sometimes feel as though your business and your spiritual practice exist in two separate worlds?
I’ve been reflecting on this a great deal lately. The world feels increasingly chaotic. There is constant change, uncertainty, endless distractions competing for our attention, news cycles fueling anxiety, social media demanding our energy, and an ongoing pressure to keep up.
I’m feeling it, and I know many of the women I work with are feeling it as well.
We often begin the day with beautiful intentions through meditation or journaling, only to open our laptops or phones and suddenly feel as though we’ve stepped into an entirely different reality.
But what if it didn’t have to be this way?
What if your business wasn’t simply a collection of tasks to complete, but actually became part of your spiritual path?
Recently I’ve been intentionally restructuring my own workdays so they feel more like a spiritual retreat. I know the world needs me at my best, and if I’m constantly reacting and operating from stress, that’s simply not possible.
Over the years I’ve experienced burnout more than once. I’ve also felt the painful disconnect between my spiritual values and the way I was operating my business. Through years of trial and error, I gradually discovered another approach.
Today I want to share five spiritual principles that have become the foundation of how I run my business.
These aren’t abstract ideas. They’re practical approaches that have helped me build work that feels spiritually aligned, sustainable, and profitable while creating meaningful change.
Running a business will always involve challenges. These principles don’t eliminate those challenges, but they have transformed them from energy-draining obstacles into opportunities for greater presence and growth.
1. Sacred presence over perpetual productivity
The first principle is choosing sacred presence over perpetual productivity.
Business culture often teaches us that productivity is the highest measure of success: more completed tasks, more clients, more content, more revenue.
What I’ve discovered is that an endless focus on productivity often undermines both our spiritual wellbeing and our effectiveness.
When we’re rushing from task to task, measuring our worth by how much we accomplish, we lose touch with the deeper purpose behind our work. We sacrifice quality for quantity, overlook creative insights that emerge through spaciousness, and deplete our own energy.
Several years ago, while rebuilding my business, I began asking myself a different question.
Instead of measuring success by how much I accomplished, what if I measured it by the quality of presence I brought to each task?
What if completing three things with full attention was more valuable than completing ten with divided attention?
I began approaching everything—from writing emails and creating content to recording podcasts and meeting with clients—as opportunities to practice presence.
I don’t do this perfectly, but it has become my guiding intention.
To my surprise, not only did I feel more nourished, but my business improved. My content became more resonant, my client work deepened, and my decision-making became clearer and more intuitive.
Planning and structure still matter, but the focus shifted from “How much can I do?” to “How fully can I show up?”
Notice where you may be sacrificing presence for productivity.
Experiment with taking one conscious breath before opening your email, beginning a client session, or starting a creative project.
This isn’t about adding another task. It’s about bringing a different quality of attention to what you’re already doing.
When we do this, business naturally becomes part of our spiritual practice.
2. Cyclical rhythms instead of constant linear progress
The second principle is embracing cyclical rhythms instead of demanding constant linear progress.
Traditional business culture celebrates continuous growth. Every quarter should outperform the previous one. Every launch should be bigger than the last.
Nature doesn’t work this way.
Trees don’t grow every day. They move through seasons of expansion, harvest, rest, and renewal.
As women, we understand cyclical rhythms through our own bodies, yet we’re often conditioned to ignore those rhythms in business.
When I first began working this way, it felt almost rebellious.
Instead of fighting my natural energy, I designed my business around it.
There are seasons of intense creation and visibility, balanced by periods of reflection, integration, and renewal.
Today I intentionally spend Tuesday through Thursday actively engaged in my work. From Friday through Monday, I move into a quieter, retreat-like rhythm. I’m away from email, social media, clients, and my team.
At other points during the year, I take four to five weeks away from work entirely.
I also align planning as much as possible with seasonal rhythms, lunar cycles, and my own hormonal cycle.
Doing so has made my business feel more sustainable and organic.
Rest is not the opposite of productivity. It is an essential part of the creative cycle.
Just as a field must occasionally lie fallow to restore its fertility, we need periods that appear unproductive in order to cultivate our best ideas.
Notice your own natural rhythms.
When do you feel most creative? Most energized? When do you naturally need rest?
Consider how your business might better support those rhythms.
Our businesses are living systems. They breathe, expand, contract, and evolve alongside the larger rhythms of life.
3. Inner wisdom over external validation
The third principle is prioritizing inner wisdom over external validation.
Today’s business world offers endless advice about what success should look like—social media metrics, revenue goals, marketing strategies, and growth tactics.
There is value in learning from others.
At the same time, an excessive focus on external validation can disconnect us from one of our greatest assets: our own inner guidance.
Everything I teach ultimately aims to help women reconnect with their own knowing.
When we constantly seek approval or direction from outside ourselves, we often override our intuition.
Before making important business decisions, create space to listen inward.
This may happen through meditation, journaling, movement, or time in nature.
It is also helpful to distinguish between fear and wisdom.
Fear tends to feel urgent, constricting, and reactive.
Wisdom is often calm, spacious, and clear, even when it asks us to grow.
Experiment with making one business decision guided primarily by your own inner knowing rather than conventional expectations.
When we build our businesses from the inside out, our work becomes an authentic expression of who we are and why we are here.
Paradoxically, that authenticity often creates businesses that are both more meaningful and more prosperous.
4. Sacred boundaries as spiritual practice
The fourth principle is understanding that boundaries are themselves a spiritual practice.
Many of us are deeply empathetic. We genuinely want to help others.
Sometimes that desire leads us to ignore our own limits.
I used to believe that being spiritual meant always being available.
I said yes to nearly every request. I answered messages at all hours. I extended client sessions. I consistently overrode my own needs because my people-pleasing parts believed that was what compassion required.
The result was burnout, resentment, and diminished quality of service.
Eventually I came to understand that boundaries are not walls separating us from others.
They are sacred containers.
Across many spiritual traditions, sacred spaces are clearly defined. Temples have walls. Rituals have beginnings and endings. Meditation creates a container of dedicated time and attention.
Business needs similar containers.
When I became clear about my working hours, my offerings, and my limits, I found I was actually more present with my clients.
Clear boundaries helped me serve from a place of fullness rather than depletion.
Notice where you regularly feel drained or resentful.
Those experiences often point toward places where stronger boundaries are needed.
Think about the boundaries that would best support your work.
This may involve work hours, response times, client expectations, or the scope of your offerings.
Communicate those boundaries with both clarity and compassion.
Also notice the parts of yourself that feel guilty or afraid when you establish limits.
Learning to support those parts is part of becoming self-led.
Approached this way, boundaries become a practice of honoring what is sacred in both ourselves and others.
5. Devotional service through business structure
The fifth principle is embracing devotional service through business structure.
Many spiritually oriented people assume that structure and systems are the opposite of intuition or feminine flow.
My experience has been the opposite.
Intentional structure can become one of the most supportive spiritual tools in a business.
In Sanskrit there is the concept of sadhana, a spiritual discipline or practice.
Traditionally, sadhana extends beyond meditation and prayer. It is about bringing sacred attention to every aspect of life.
I’ve come to see my business systems in this way.
The structures that support my work create the conditions for my deepest service.
Notice where a lack of structure leaves you feeling scattered, overwhelmed, or as though you’re constantly reinventing the wheel.
Those places often reveal where thoughtful systems could create greater ease.
Consider what processes would support your highest work.
This might include a consistent approach to content creation, client onboarding, or planning your calendar.
Business structure does not have to resemble conventional corporate systems.
You can create structures that reflect your own values, rhythms, and ways of working.
Also notice any resistance you have toward structure.
Sometimes we associate structure with rigidity or control because of past experiences.
By becoming aware of those associations, we can build new relationships with structure that feel supportive rather than restrictive.
When we approach business systems as devotional practice, they help create businesses that are sustainable, meaningful, and spiritually aligned.
To summarize, the five principles are:
- Sacred presence over perpetual productivity.
- Cyclical rhythms instead of constant linear progress.
- Inner wisdom over external validation.
- Sacred boundaries as spiritual practice.
- Devotional service through business structure.
These principles have allowed me to create a business that not only reflects my spiritual values but also deepens them.
My work is no longer separate from my spiritual path.
It has become an extension of it.
